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Afrojack

Earlier this year, I listed Afrojack as one of the worlds greatest DJ's and recently DJ Magazine named him in their top 10 DJ's once again for 2012. Afrojack is known for collaborating with major artists and is back producing for Pitbull after their mega collaboration with Ne-Yo called "Give Me Everything". Afrojack has produced four brand new tracks for Pitbull's new album "Global Warming" which came out on Monday. The new tracks include "Party Ain't Over" featuring Usher, "Have Some Fun" featuring The Wanted, "Last Night" featuring Havana Brown and "I'm Off That".

This year he began his North America "Jacked" tour with multiple sold out shows and then embarked on the same concept throughout Europe with seven shows a week throughout the summer. He also headlined both EDC NY & Las Vegas to over 300,000 people, in addition to the Ultra Music Festival in Miami and Tomorrowland in Europe. You can follow his updates on Twitter @djafrojack or on Facebook.

In this interview, Afrojack talks about working with Pitbull on his new album, how he selects which artists to collaborate with, his music creation process and more. He also mentions his major 2013 announcement!

What was it like working on Pitbull’s new album?

Working on Pitbull’s album was fun and a big step for me as a producer. Doing 4 out of 12 tracks gave me the opportunity to set the tone of the album and having a variety of features with The Wanted, Havana Brown and Usher made it a lot of fun too!

We originally met in Miami in his studio, about two years ago. I played him “Give Me Everything” with the demo vocals and from that moment everything was on. He's sharp, fast and knows how to create a good vibe in the studio between all people - from lawyers to managers to us artists.

How do you select which artists to collaborate with? What is your criteria?

To me, the most important thing when working with someone is that you get along, and it’s fun. I hate working with arrogant "A-artists" that just want to make hits and think they own the world. If music was a cookie, and you could have the most famous cookie in the world, but it would mean a bad taste every day, you'd rather take another cookie that’s not the most famous, but tastes better, right?

Can you describe your music creation process? How long does it take to make a track? What about a remix?

The most important thing about making a track is that you know what you’re going to do. Making pure music without any idea of what you’re doing is fun too, but eventually you want to connect to people. Having a vision, knowing how you want to connect to people and what feeling you want to create is 90% of the work, and can take days, weeks and even months sometimes. But then when I know, I know, and the actual producing/remixing only takes me 2-3 hours (I've been producing for 14 years so it’s like riding a bike on sonic waves).

What have your experiences been like on the Jacked Tour this year? Which cities/venues did you enjoy the most?

It’s been absolutely insane. It cannot be described in words. I’ve uploaded some movies to AfrojackTV so people can relive the fun or find out about what we do! Every show felt legendary to me and it looked like most of the party people felt the same, but for me, personally, the biggest two shows of the tour were Chicago (Congress Theater, 4,700 capacity), and LA (Palladium, 4,500 capacity). They were not just an experience, but also a statement to the world. Almost 5,000 people gathering in these major cities just to enjoy a night with their favorite music shows that, even in these crazy times, we as free humans can still have fun, make our own choices and enjoy life!

It makes me happy to see that people don’t let the rules of society put them down, but live their own life and play by their own rules.

What should we expect from you in 2013?

The first ever Afrojack album, which I have been working on since January 2012. I will have a lot more crazy remixes. I’m going to voice my opinion more and try to inspire more people to live their life their way, and of course expanding the two main ingredients: music and party!

Dan Schawbel is a Gen Y career expert and the founder of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting company. He is also the #1 international bestselling author of Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future and was named to the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 list in 2010. Subscribe to my updates: Facebook.com/DanSchawbel.